Boomboom Ballykeel in must win situation Friday

CAMPBELLVILLE, ON — Metro Pace winner Boomboom Ballykeel returns to Ontario Sires Stakes action on Friday, Sept. 20 at Mohawk Racetrack and the two-year-old pacing colt is in a must win situation if he is to extend his season through next weekend’s $200,000 Super Final.

The Mach Three son has just five points to his credit from a fifth-place finish in the July 8 Gold Series leg at Mohawk and the current cut off for a berth in the Super Final is 38. A win, worth 50 points, would launch the Richard Moreau trainee into the post season, but a runner- up result, worth 25 points, will leave him short.

“He is sharp, he trained in 1:55 on Wednesday (Sept. 11) at Mohawk, but then again everything has to line up,” adds the Tillsonburg resident. “You’ve got to be lucky. You don’t just have to have a good horse; you have to have a lucky horse.”

Boomboom Ballykeel and regular reinsman Sylvain Filion of Milton will be looking for luck from Post 5 in the tenth race on Friday, in a division that is loaded with talent. Point leader Three Of Clubs will start from Post 3 for trainer Gregg McNair of Guelph and his partners Tony Lawrence of Hanover and Shady Hill Racing Stable of Durham and Mid-Summer Challenge winner Arthur Blue Chip gets Post 7 for trainer Dr. Ian Moore and Shadow One Stable of Guelph. Two other colts ranked in the top 10, Twin B Spy, who races out of Cambridge resident Casie Coleman’s barn for West Wins Stable of Cambridge, Mac Nichol of Burlington and Adriano Sorella of Milton, and Cluster Hanover, owned and trained by Cambridge resident Jack Darling, will start from Posts 1 and 4, respectively.

In addition to the two-year-old pacing colts Mohawk will also host the regular season finales for the two and three-year-old trotting colts. The freshmen will star in Races 1, 2 and 9 and William Wellwood Memorial runner-up Harper Blue Chip is in the same dilemma as Boomboom Ballykeel, needing a win and some luck to land in the post season. The Mark Steacy trainee, who is also piloted by Filion, will start from Post 3 in the second race.

The sophomore trotting colts will wage their battles in Races 3 and 6, and division point leader Thankyoukessel will be looking to make it two in a row for trainer Joseph MacIsaac and owner-breeder Carolyn Williston of Moffat from Post 6 in the sixth race.